BenS

@Randomizer ooh, I clearly missed that as a Shaper, though it sounds like a good goal conceivably for my future Agent. @Hyperion703 Yes, I'd agree the Spectral Cleaver gets you a lot for minimal investment (potentially none) in Melee W-s. Did you use the Living Knife for your Battle creations? Seems like a nice boost. Also, are you playing Agent + Battle creations? Solo Agent? Which difficulty? I'm tempted to play a Normal Agent just to avoid friendly fire, which I've seen enough of as a Veteran Shaper and Torment Guardian. I will hope to pump Essence Shield as well as an Agent. I think those rare Armor pods only give you 20 pts of Protection, which is nothing, but maybe I've misunderstood them. Apologies to the OP for the thread jack.

Hmm. I don't have access to the scripts but according to my notes from my Shaper run...let's see what we find when looking for Agent-friendly weapons... Charmed Falchion--that +2 Battle Magic is sweet...but 7 Melee Training is probably unrealistic for an Agent, I agree Empathy Blade--only Melee Tr. 1, but you give up -1 Str/Agility for +10% to creation haste chance & riposte; might be decent I suppose, if only for creations Essence Eater--for Melee Tr. 4, you get +1 Agility & Evasion, and do physical & energy dmg; maybe this is the weapon you're referring to? Living Knife--no Melee Tr. requirement? You get +2 to creation Str & Agility; this seems decent to have in hand, right? Shielding Knife--Melee Tr. 3 gets you +7% physical armor but more importantly, +15% chance to evade attacks; not bad? Singing Rapier--Melee Tr. 5 gets you +2 Q. Action & Evasion; maybe worthwhile if it's become expensive to raise further levels of those? Spectral Cleaver--Melee Tr. 2 gets you a very nice +2 Mental Magic, +20% to blessings/curses you cause IDK; there's a few decent choices there it seems.

A very topical thread, as I'm running a Torment Guardian now w/ the Purifying Blade, and had wondered about some of the other decent swords in the game. I might play around w/ some of the others when I get them just for the experience of it. Fun is fun, after all. There are also some decent swords for Agents I note, though those will have to wait for my next run.

I personally would not waste any skill points in Stealth unless you're specifically going for a Pacifist run (achievement/medal). Skill points are precious enough as they are. But if you prefer putting Stealth on your PC--and I'm not sure how it works mechanics-wise--from a RP perspective...more power to you.

I don't think we have the option of buying back something we've sold, sorry.

I don't believe you can recruit Tsuenami, but you can get decent xp w/ Leadership to soothe her (?). Nor could you recruit that early Fyora. As for buying the game on Steam--which I hope you do--I don't actually know whether you have to start over or not.

I think you need 4 Leadership to get Zora's help, which is well worth it for all the zones she will stick w/ you! Just don't let her die obviously.

I don't believe so.

This is super helpful, thank you. I managed to play through a Shaper game w/out the Helix Ring. Either I missed it or sold it stupidly. About to start either a Guardian or Agent game shortly, and I'll be sure to grab it/hang on to it this time, even though you mentioned it was probably better for a pure Shaper.

I haven't played w/ a Drakon/Ur-Drakon in this current game beyond doing the min/max stats I provided above, so you already have more in-game xp w/ them than I do. You will soon decide how and when to upgrade them I'm sure. If I do another Shaper run, I will try Fire & Battle; for my Guardian run I will do Fire; for my Agent run, Battle. As for why I run w/ maxed out Tier 4s...rather than w/ greater #s...partly b/c in past GF games I went w/ quantity > quality, and it's fun to try something new. Also, while an overcharged Rotghroth can be awesome offensively, the Rotdhizons will be higher level and last longer thanks to their dmg resistant upgrade (and top them off w/ Regenerate and Essence Shield and Protection and...) and they're the tankiest thing you will ever create. If you decide to just keep w/ Fire Shaping and ignore Battle/Magic, may I suggest you also become a halfway decent mage? Not so much for Battle magic, but for Blessing Magic. Also don't ignore Healing Craft, as you're Strong in that. Unless you're fine w/ consumables but those only go so far; you can't reproduce everything you can w/ actual magic.

I'll try to help. I'm playing a Shaper, near end-game so I don't remember where I was at for 9th level exactly but... Based on your fondness for your Fyora and the 2 Drayks...you might as well get a Drakon b/c then you are just focusing on 1 (Fire) Shaping school. For the time being. So when you put more pts into it, literally all your creations would get boosts. I thought I'd go Fire Shaping mainly for my current Shaper, as that's what I typically do. But. I decided to try both (the improved) Battle Shaping as well as Magic Shaping. At 20th l. have (w/ gear/canisters) 11 pts in Battle & Magic Shaping, and (w/ gear/canisters) 16 pts in Essence Mastery. I run w/ 2 maxed out Rotdhizons & 2 maxed out Gazers, w/ essence (my total essence is 378) to spare on spells quite easily. The point of this? The Battle creations are great tanks and the Magic creations are great nukes. It's been a solid strategy for me. For you, I suspect the Drakons are a middle ground you can use if you really do go all in on Fire Shaping. They're not as tanky as Rots, but certainly more than the Gazers, and thematically fit your team. If you want to do some future planning, here's the minimum/maximum essence needed for Tier 4 creations. Maybe you'll want to get Battle Shaping up there as well, IDK (notice the modest essence requirements compared to the other Tier 4s). Drakons (24/87); Ur-Drakons (36/126); base levels 10 & 13 respectively Rotghroths (18/63); Rotdhizons (26/89); base levels 10 & 12 respectively Gazers (22/76); Eyebeasts (32/113); base levels 10 & 13 respectively Good luck.

Do we know why the Drayk/Cryodrayk sprites are (mostly) so tiny in this game? For a while I thought I was just meeting the runts of the litter, or maybe it was a design choice. Maybe even a problem w/ my computer. But if you look at the 4 Cryodrayks at the end of the entrance hall in The Radiant College...you'll see at least 1 that appears noticeably smaller to the naked eye compared w/ others. Various such single encounters in the game appear to me to be the same issue. Weren't these creatures taller/stockier in prior games? When your Fyora towers over one and you can reach down to pet it on the head, the awe-level when seeing a drayk...lessens. I'll admit it's changed my normal Shaper preferences, which are Fire Shaping. If this needs to be calved off into another discussion, feel free.

There's at least 1 more Roamertooth Band in the game, fyi, though by the time you get it, you might already have better options for your PC.

Per the Steam boards, there's a bug w/ the Feisty Slap Gloves, that should be fixed in a few weeks w/ 1.0.2. I believe weapon shaping skills don't work w/ it. I have fond memories of the FSG from Mutagen. I'll be curious to check it out when I play a Guardian.